Emily woke up feeling refreshed and excited. The best way she could describe the feeling was the way you feel on your birthday. Or maybe the last day of school, although her memories of public school were faded.
Emily attended kindergarten and first grade, but about halfway through second grade, an increasing number of letters home to her parents from a frustrated teacher got her pulled out of school and her mom opted for home schooling. According to the teacher, Emily was "disruptive". Yes, if completing assignments in half the allotted time, then wandering around the class trying to help the other kids finish could be considered disruptive, then the description was accurate. Emily had gotten excellent scores on several intelligence tests and was simply bored.
At recess, she shied away from the kids playing tag and throwing a ball. She'd rather talk to the teachers about animals, or books.
It wasn't until her early teenage years that Emily forged any serious friendships that held her attention.
Opening her laptop, she found several new messages on MySpace from church friends. She cycled through them and answered a few, then got up to get dressed. She heard her dad leaving for work, and soon her mom would follow.
She seldom gave much thought on "what to wear", as she wasn't dressing for anyone but herself. Today she was meeting Ted, and she wanted to look nice. She looked in her closet and dug through her dresser, wishing she had more pretty things to wear. Her wardrobe was primarily a collection of jeans, khakis, and t-shirts. The small set of girly clothes she owned were mostly party dresses and things she'd wear to special church functions, and none of those would be appropriate for just casually meeting someone in public. Not in this case, anyway. This wasn't a date, as much as Emily was wishing that were the case. It was a simple, innocent meetup; probably all that would happen was a lot of conversation.
Emily had plenty of fantasies about how it would go, but she was fairly sure that her meeting with Ted was going to be a lecture on how the events of the day before were totally inappropriate and should never happen again.
She put on a pair of tan panties and a newer bra that was close in color. The bra was a favorite, from the Victoria's Secret store in the mall. Her grandmother had given her a $50 mall gift card as a birthday present and she wanted to treat herself to something that made her feel pretty, so she bought the best-fitting bra she could get. She loved the attentiveness and help of the sales clerk; no one had ever helped her find a properly-fitting bra before. She loved the way this one felt, and the way it looked on her. It made her feel sexy.
Over that went a well-worn pair of faded jeans and a yellow t-shirt. She looked at herself in the mirror and wondered what Ted would think. She pulled the tee over her head and dug through the drawer again, this time finding a blue and white striped top. She didn't wear it often, and never to church, because the neckline went a bit lower than she usually wore.
She remembered very distinctly the last time she wore it: Her best friend Sierra had picked her up and they were enjoying some time at the mall. A man, about 40, sat across from them in the food court, and every time Emily looked his way, he quickly tried to look another direction. She mentioned it to Sierra, and she giggled and said, "Hang on, I'll do a recon and see if he's checking you out!".
She got up and circled around where the man didn't notice her, and sure enough, any time Emily looked away, Sierra saw he was completely fixated on her, specifically the area below her neck.
"He's totally checking out your boobs," she laughed, and, although she acted like it was creepy to her, inside Emily was excited. A man, particularly a more mature one, was checking her out.
"So, let's try this one," thought Emily, as she pulled the top over her head. She straightened the shirt and looked at herself in the mirror. The well-fitted brassiere and the scoop neck shirt did a nice job of showing off what Emily usually considered evidence that she was overweight. She didn't realize until recently how many men had admired her, and found her cleavage to be not just a distraction, but a turn-on. She hoped that's how it would go when Ted saw her today.
White socks and sneakers, and she was dressed. The tap on her door was her mother, about to leave. She opened it.
"Going out?" her mom asked.
"I might later. Just for a walk around the neighborhood. I feel better and I want to get outside."
"Okay, but don't stay out too long." Her mom kissed her cheek. "And get a couple lessons done before you go, okay?"
"I will," she smiled. Emily's daily routine included a few hours on the computer doing online class work, as well as written assignments that her mom would review. She always got done sooner than average, and always had free time for reading and watching Netflix movies after.
Once she was alone, she started her online lessons. Distracted but eager to get done, she finished them quickly, and then did a few written assignments. Her attention kept going to the clock on her wall, and it seemed that it was taking much longer than usual for each minute to pass. Eventually it was near 10 AM, and she closed her books and picked up her phone.
Ted shaved and showered, but resisted the urge to masturbate in the shower. It was normally part of his morning ritual, since his wife was seldom in the mood for morning sex. He had read somewhere that masturbating before a date was a good way to find out if you were romantically interested, or just physically infatuated. He didn't need to test himself there; he already knew he fit in both categories in the case of Emily.
The more he thought of her, the closer she got to his idea of perfect.
Maybe it was years of frustration and pent-up desires. Maybe it was because he never got to "sow his wild oats". He realized he'd probably be just as attracted to ANY girl who responded and flirted with him the way Emily had, but from his perspective, Emily was his number-one choice for the position.
He thought briefly about the other girls in Emily's circle of friends, imagining them in the same scenario. Tawny? Not his ideal, but she was adorably cute and friendly. But her "I love Jesus soooo much" routine was tiresome and off-putting to him. Kayla? Such an amazing body, but again, no. She was very full of herself, and no amount of sexy curves could overcome that faux hipster "I'm so cool" act. Amy? Amy was gorgeous. Long, slim legs and a tan that always made him wonder just where the tan stopped, and what those areas looked like, but she was what Ted used to call an "airhead" in his youth.
What about Sierra? "Hmm, maybe," Maybe, but only because she was the exact opposite of Emily in personality, and bad girls were definitely sexy. His mind briefly imagined a three-way with those two girls, and it gave him a small rise as he washed himself. "Something to fantasize about later," he mused.
Yet none of these girls, or any other he could imagine at the moment, came as close to the perfect girl as Emily.
After he was dressed, Ted sat at his desk and worked on the lesson plans again, his gaze drifting often to the bottom-right of his computer screen, to where the digital representation of the correct time slowly crawled towards 10 o'clock. At 9:45 he grabbed up some of his work and tossed it in his satchel, and headed out. His wife had left earlier and he knew there was a next to zero chance of crossing paths with her. He had planned out his morning itinerary over and over last night, falling asleep in the process.
He planned to take her to his favorite park, sit at a table, or maybe one of the benches, in plain sight, and just talk. Then, if she was interested, he'd ask her to walk with him on one of the trails, where he'd try for a little kiss. He decided that's all he needed to see how serious she really was, and he felt that he'd also learn the same about himself. What he had yet to work out was just how he'd initially meet her. He certainly wasn't just going to drive to her house, walk up to her door and knock. This had to be discreet, and fast, and not attract any attention.
At 9:55 he pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store and picked a spot at the far end, away from all the shoppers who wanted a shorter walk to the door. It was a crisp fall morning and there was a gentle breeze, and several clouds masked the sun. A typically beautiful day for this part of the country, and part of why Ted had never considered moving to another area once he was "out on his own". The store was close to Emily's neighborhood, which Ted had thoroughly researched via online maps and using his Sunday School class records to get an address. He knew just what roads he would take to get in and out, but still didn't know how to pull off the pickup without being noticed.
Emily sat at her work desk and sent the first text.
Emily: Good morning! How are you? (smile)
Ted: Hi! I'm great! How are you? (smile)
Emily: I'm perfect! (smile)
Ted: Yes, you are. I'm sure of it. (smile)
